


Memories

by EmpressGeek



Series: ASW spin offs [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Flashbacks, Other, Story within a Story, Tags May Change, lore hints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 05:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30033681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmpressGeek/pseuds/EmpressGeek
Summary: It was one of those nights, again. (ASW spin-off)
Series: ASW spin offs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2209368





	Memories

Her wooden cane, clacked on the rough stone steps. Her quills ruffled in the chilled nighttime air. It was nearly midnight, and the moon was high. The sky a navy sea pinpricked with sparkling stars. Why would anyone be out at this time?

She couldn't sleep again.

Her mind, ever since that day, had been constantly plagued with nightmares. The blood. The screams. The pain. It all would come flooding back as soon as her eyes closed. It was a curse that many of this old mansion shared. Most nights she could swallow the pain and return to the realm of sleep, but sometimes this wasn't the case. Something had stuck with her that night, and she was unable to sleep. So, she did what she had always done during these long nights; wandering around the mansion's grounds.

Sometimes she would roam the beach, others it would be the library or even the infirmary. This evening she was led to the spire, well that's what they had called it. It wasn't any sort of tower, but it was named that anyway. It was built to be the place where they would honor those who had passed; back then none of them knew they would be using it within two years of its creation.

She sighed, as she climbed the last step. The off-white stone, though damaged, glistened in the pale moon light. Black shadows were casted by the individual graves. A silent tear, slipped from her eye and onto her cheek. All it took was ten years, and most of them were already gone. Slain at the hand of this monster that seemed to be unstoppable. Soon she might be the only one left.

She closed her eyes, as more tears began to fall...

_The rain was heavy, it soaked his proud red fur, but he couldn't care less. This all felt like a dream. No, not a dream. This couldn't possibly be any dream; it could only be a nightmare. A nightmare none of them could wake from._

_It had been weeks, but it felt as if only mere moments had passed. His home, his purpose, his friend. All gone within an instant. How could he have allowed this to happen? It was his sworn duty to protect one of the most powerful artifacts on the planet, just like all his kind before him. Yet, he had failed, and in the process got one of his closest friends killed._

_*clack, clack, clack*_

_Footsteps, he whirled around, his dreads flying out, ready for a fight. A familiar black hedgehog stood before him; an umbrella in his hand. Realizing there was no danger, his fight stance dropped and his muscles relaxed._

_"What do you want Shadow? Did Rouge send you out here to get me out of the rain?" he asked._

_The black hedgehog, remained silent, his face as stoic and unreadable as normal. His shoes clacked against the stone as he joined the red echidna, in front of the grave._

_They stood in silent understanding._

_"This was going to happen, at some point." Shadow spoke._

_"What?" Knuckles asked._

_"He was going to die. We all will at some point. It's only a question of when."_

_"Says the immortal."_

_"I don't age, that's different. Whether by my hand or someone else's, I can be killed."_

_The echidna didn't answer._

_"Death claims all, eventually." Shadow spoke._

_"I know. It's just...this time it was one of ours. And this wasn't like the other times we thought he was gone. This time I saw it. I heard him scream. I don't know how I'll ever forget that."_

_"You won't."_

_Knuckles glanced at shadow. The hedgehog hybrid's face still stoic and blank. He was grateful for the honesty, rather than the usual 'I'm so sorry' sympathy lines. He turned back to the grave and nodded sadly._

_"How are the others?" Knuckles asked._

_"Coping. Everyone is either bawling or in silent grief."_

_Knuckles nodded again. "What about Tails and Amy?"_

_"The fox has warded himself up in his lab."_

_"And Amy?"_

_"Rose had been locked in her room ever since the ceremony."_

_Knuckles shook his head. The poor girl had been silent ever since the incident, and her diagnoses._

_"I can't imagine what going through her mind right now. Sure, we all lost a friend that day, but she lost her husband. I can't imagine what I would do without Rouge. Now, she has a new baby on the way. Maybe the little one will help her smile after it arrives."_

_"If the little one survives."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"She just lost her husband, her home, and found out about a child that its father will never get to meet. Grief can destroy a person from the inside out. With how sick she's been recently; the kid might not make it."_

_"I know that you're not a glass half full kind of guy, but right now we need hope that things will get better. That kid is Amy's hope. So, don't you dare say that there's a chance that it would make it."_

_"I'm being realistic Knuckles. Mothers who are under stress tend to have complications, either with the baby or the pregnancy. I'm not wishing death upon an innocent child; I'm just stating facts."_

_Knuckles sighed, "Alright, what's your prediction, then?"_

_"Best case, the kid is preterm. Worse case, it's stillborn."_

_"I don't think Amy could handle that right now. For her sake, I hope your wrong."_

_"So, do I."_

_Knuckles sighed, "Anything else going on right now?"_

_Shadow glanced over, asking the echidna to elaborate._

_"I mean, I've been kind of out of the loop for a while. Rouge would sometime tell what things were going on, but I haven't asked recently. Anything we should be worried about?"_

_"Besides for the recent reports of multiple thefts. It's been quiet."_

_"Thefts? Not a good thing but isn't that law enforcements job?"_

_"It would be, if it wasn't for the nature of the thefts. Witnesses report a bright green flash and then the target is gone. These thefts are being reported everywhere, sometime miles away from each other and are happening in short amounts of time."_

_"Chaos control?"_

_"No, Maria would have sensed it, if it was."_

_"Well, don't worry too much about it. It's just a gifted thief, we'll catch him."_

The old wooden door creaked as it moved. She stepped back inside. The hallways were mostly drenched in black shadows. The only lights were of the occasional candle alit with a purply pink flame, or a plant whose equinox was sent ablaze.

One hand on the gemstone in her cane, the other gently grazing the wall. She seized the left side of an entre away, and looked into a certain room. The fireplace was cold and empty. The windows seemed to be dead opening to the outside. The furniture untouched by lived beings. The stagnant air, suggested that the wind had been neglecting this room for some time.

She shook her head...

_Hot flames crackled and danced in fireplace. Heavy rain from the storm outside beat against the window panes. Several tired and concerned individuals sat amongst the furniture. Only the youngest of them were playing on a mat in the center of the room, blissfully unaware of the unnerving atmosphere they were in. A warm gale of gentle cleansing wind, brushed over them, threating to send them back to sleep. Though no one wanted to be awake at 3:24 in the morning, its efforts were in vain._

_A white bat, dressed in a pale pink silk night robe, glanced around the room. Every single individual in the room (with the exception of her daughter and niece) had a nearly blank expression plastered on their faces. She took a deep breath, tired of the depressing atmosphere._

_"Alright who wants some hot chocolate?" she asked getting up from her chair._

_Bright smiles began to spear on the faces of the little echidna/bat halfling, and gaggle of various black arm hybrids playing on the mat._

_"Me!" the girls shouted, quickly followed by the excited chirps and cheeps of the wisp hybrids._

_"Rouge, please don't get them hyped up on sugar at this hour," Spoke a black hedgehog sitting on a couch on the left side of the room._

_"Oh, honestly Shadow. After that ear piercing scream, it's not like anyone here is going to able to get back to sleep." She answered._

_"Zero seemed to be able to," spoke the distorted voice of Eclipse the darkling. The Ultimate Alien was on the opposite side of the sofa his older half-brother was sitting on. He was curled up in multiple amounts of blankets, as he usually did on cold winter nights._

_"Oh, please we all know that Jackal could sleep through a nuclear bomb," Knuckles spoke up from his armchair._

_Everyone in the room nodded in agreement._

_"So awre we not having hot chocowet?" spoke up the small two-year-old bat/echidna half-breed as she and the other little ones, turned to her mother._

_Rouge leaned down to her daughter's level, "You have to go convince uncle Shadow first." She whispered too them._

_With in an instant The Ultimate Lifeform was swarmed with begging children. The dark arms began to fly around his head and nudge his legs, while the two toddlers jumped up onto his lap._

_"P'ease! P'ease Uncle Shadow!" squeaked his niece._

_"Please Papa!" his daughter pipped._

_Being assaulted with puppy dog eyes, shadow shot Rouge a death glare before relenting, "Alright, alright, but no seconds."_

_Squeaking and chirping in victory, the children stopped pestering their uncle and ran back to Rouge beginning to drag her towards the kitchen. With exception of little Mari who decided to stay snuggled up to her father's side._

_"Coffee?" she asked, earning nodded form every adult in the room._

_Shadow wrapped his arm around his daughter as she continued to cling to his side, allowing her to nuzzle closer into his fur. He could see it in her bizarrely colored brown eyes, that she was worried. She had put on a fairly convincing fake smile for the others, a skill that he was pretty sure came from him, but he knew she was scared. He could understand why. Being woken up by a pained screech is not easy to get over, especially for a three-year-old._

_"So, anyone want to talk about the elephant in the room?" Knuckles asked._

_"What pachyderm?" Eclipse asked, though the hivemind._

_"Figure of speech little brother. I'll explain it later." Shadow answered._

_"Which elephant are you referring too?" Tails said. The two-tailed fox glanced up from the book he was reading, "The fact that one of our closest friends, is currently delivering a preterm baby, or that with all those blankets Eclipse looks like he was thrown into a cupcake?"_

_The alien growled, "Is it my fault that I wasn't born with the ability to grow a winter coat like the rest of you?"_

_"I was talking about the elephant that put Espio in a coma," Knuckles said._

_"I have to agree with Knuckles. We need to talk about this," tails said, "After what this guy did to Espio, he's..."_

_"Clearly not some petty thief like we previously thought," Shadow finished._

_"We still don't what happened to vector and Charmy," Said Eclipse._

_"And we probably won't know for sure until Espio wakes up," Knuckles said, "Is anyone looking around for them at the moment?"_

_"Cream and Vanilla are still asking around in the city areas, and Gadget is still out in the desert searching," Tails answered._

_"HOT CHOCOWET!" shouted, a small voice._

_"Careful, gemstone." Rouge said as she and the rest of the little ones reentered the room._

_Angie, and Rouge went around passing out coffee, to tails, and Knuckles. Then hot chocolate to everyone else, with Shadow as the exception. He preferred the coffee beans straight._

_"So, what were you guys taking about?" Rouge asked._

_"Matters at hand," Shadow answered._

_Rouge only nodded as she placed a large bowl of hot chocolate on the floor for the Dark arms. The little wisp hybrids, didn't mind sharing and since the room didn't have a big enough table in it, the floor was the safest place to put it._

_"Any luck contacting Silver, Blaze and Marine?" Knuckles asked._

_"No, for some reason we can break through to the Sol dimension," Tails said, "Something blocking the emeralds out."_

_A sudden thunder clap, caused everyone in the room jump. Some more so than others, as the black hedgehog was suddenly pinned to the couch by his family. His daughter clung to his side, his brother leaped to his other side, and the dark arms squeezed in where ever they could._

_"Eclipse," Shadow said, his voice slightly muffled, by the blankets that had followed his brother, "Get off of me."_

_"Sorry," muttered the alien as he dragged the blankets off of his brother._

_A sudden shriek rang through the halls. Concern, swept through the room._

_Mari looked up at her father, "Is Aunt Amy going to be okay?"_

_Shadow sighed and pulled Mari a little closer. He honestly didn't know._

_Soft footsteps drew everyone's attention to the room's entryway. A young hedgehog with golden quills, entered. A looked of utter shock in her pale blue eyes. Her hands shaking slightly. Her ears drooped, signaling that something was wrong._

_"Maria?" Shadow said, as he handed Mari off to Eclipse and stood to check on his sister._

_The young hedgehog didn't answer. She only continued to stare blankly and breathe shakily. She was gently led to the couch, where she was comforted by her brothers and niece._

_"Amy..." Maria spoke, her voice quiet and breaking. Mari climbed into her Aunt's lap and hugged her; an act which the golden hedgehog gratefully returned._

_Fearing the worst, Tails quickly asked, "Is she...gone?"_

_Maria shook her head as tears began to well up in her eyes, "No, no. She's not."_

_"Maria?" Shadow asked again._

_"He's so small, Shadow!" Any strength she had left was gone, and her tears ran wild, "They don't think he's going to make it!"_

_No one said anything else..._

The cold gravel crunched beneath her shoes, as she walked through the train field. The shadowy silhouette of the obstacle course, caught her eye. She took a deep breath, feeling the chill grasp of the wind. Almost hearing trill and whisper. It had gone quiet for some time.

She glanced up almost seeing them on the field...

_She structed left, and then dodged right. Her opponent was quick and with the power of teleportation; she was surely a difficult one to hit._

_*phwamp*_

_She quickly twisted her hips, and extended her leg up. Contact._

_Mari was thrown back, but recovered quickly by using her momentum to roll back on to her feet. In a flash of blue light, she warped behind Angie and grabbed the girl's sensitive wings. Angie struggled for a moment before jumping and flipping forward, slamming Mari into the ground._

_Mari teleported once more, from below Angie to a few feet above her, aiming to land a flying kick. Angie quickly rolled over, causing Mari to miss before spin kicking her legs out from under her. Angie then used her arms to pin Mari down to the ground._

_"Stop, stop!"_

_Both girls' struggle stopped and they looked up. Seeing their fathers and Aunt staring at them._

_"Angie what are you doing?" Knuckles asked._

_"Pinning her down so I can reason with her," The seven-year-old answered, as she got off her friend._

_Shadow shook his head._

_Maria spoke up, "Girls, I'm going to be blunt. They're going to be people you can't reason with."_

_"But we're Leaguers. We save people, we don't hurt people," Angie said._

_"Your right gemstone," Knuckles said walking over to his daughter, "But sometimes you just have to knock some sense into some people."_

_"You mean like when Aunt Rouge clocks you and shouts 'You, knucklehead!'?" Mari asked._

_"Yes. Like that." Knuckles deadpanned._

_Angie giggled._

The bright red door of her room, creaked as it slowly opened. Her slippers shuffled on the hard floor that transition from wood to stone half-way through the room. Her cane clacked as it normally did. She turned to the shelves of photos and keepsakes that hung on her walls.

She sighed, "I'm sorry."

She continued to her bed, feeling sleep finally pulling her towards it. She glanced over at her pet, that was slumbering at the foot of her bed, and gently ran her hand down the little dragon's back. She smiled to herself, when seeing the sweet creature happily chitter and flick her wings in her sleep. She laid down, waiting to dream of more pleasant times.

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:**
> 
> **Hello my viewers! I felt inspiration gripping my mind and I just rolled with it. It's one-shot spin-off of My 'A Second Wind' series, focusing on my version of Maria Robotnik the Hedgehog. The basic jest of this one is Maria walking around the mansion reminiscing of the times that are now long gone. It's a sad one but not as sad as Mari's one-shot, 'Hidden Tears'. Don't worry about the other stories, I have I will be updating them! However, I will be changing the first chapter of the 'A Second Wind' chapters as I don't really like it and think it could be better.**
> 
> **See you guys at my next work!**


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